Our 18th annual Race for Education fall fundraiser, to be held on Friday, October 30, kicked off the week of September 21 and we’ve already received over $8,100 from sponsors! Make a gift online today and help us reach and exceed our goal of $30,000 to support our educational programs and activities this year.
Race fundraising packets were sent home with PreK3-5th grade students and were mailed to parents of 6th-12th grade students. Let’s work together and reach out to our family members, friends, and local businesses to make this fundraiser our most successful ever.
New this year — we’ve expanded the Race to be an all-school event — adding high school students to the effort. Throughout Race Day on Friday, October 30, students in various grade-level groups will walk, run, or jog around our track for a 30-minute period, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. To add to the fun, the Middle School and High School races will incorporate an obstacle course.
The fundraising method we’re using this year is also new. Parents do not have any address label sheets to fill out and send in to school. Instead, there is a Race website where everyone can give online. Parents, students, and teachers can participate by sending an email to people you know asking them to be a Race sponsor and giving them the link to our fundraising website — www.race4ed.com/acs.
Sponsors can give any amount, but if they donate $50 or more, a special Race sneaker sign with the sponsor’s name and the name of the student they are sponsoring will be posted on a school hallway wall as a sign of support. Donors can also be a “Classroom Sponsor” (for a gift of $200) or an “Event Sponsor” (for a gift of $400). Individual yard signs with the names/logos of Classroom and Event sponsors will be placed around the edge of the track on Race Day to encourage all of our runners. In addition, the names/logos of our “Event Sponsors” will go on a banner hung at the school for the week prior to and on Race Day.
CLICK HERE to make a Race Donation.
There are also lots of great prizes for students and classes who get involved — the specific details are in the Race Packet sent to each school family. There is a “Student Grand Prize” of an Apple Watch Series 3 or a season pass to an Ocean City water park for the top student fundraiser, and there are three “Class Grand Prizes” for classes who raise the most money in sponsor donations — one prize for an Early Ed/Elementary Class, one for a Middle School Class, and one for a High School Class. Other prizes include Dress Down Day Passes, Snack Passes, and Five Below $10 Gift Card Prizes — check out all the details in the Race packet.
If you would like to volunteer on Race Day, please contact Race Coordinator PJ Santos at psantos@acseht.org or 609-653-1199, ext. 302.
Our Middle School Soccer teams are off to a great start, winning their first games of the season at home against Pilgrim Academy on September 21. The Girls’ team, under head coach Casey Hopwood, won 3-0, and the Boys’ team, under new head coach Brandon Stevens, beat Pilgrim 6-1.
It’s time to order Class T-Shirts for students from preschool to the 8th grade. The Class T-shirts will be worn for the Race for Education and for other class activities during the school year, with different colored shirts for each grade. The order form is online and the deadline to place your order is Monday, October 5.
Boscov’s is once again sponsoring its “Friends Helping Friends” charitable shopping event on October 14 and 15 — and if you mention Atlantic Christian School by name in the store at the register or online at check-out, Boscov’s will donate 5% of your total purchase to ACS. The big shopping event will be two days this year — October 14 and 15 — from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There are no tickets or shopping passes to purchase in advance, just shop on those two days and mention ACS and we’ll get the donation.
Estefany Gomez is a new face in our Upper School for the 2020-2021 school year. She is teaching Middle School and High School Spanish, as well as 4th and 5th grade Spanish. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Estefany enjoys teaching her native language to her students and also sharing with them how following God’s plan for her life led her to ACS. She was planning to be an engineer when she started college at the Dominico Americano University, but God had a different plan and she eventually changed direction and earned a BA in education.
Tim Rosie is our new Director of K-12 Choral and Instrumental Music, which includes leading our Elementary and Middle School Bands and our Middle School and High School Choirs. Tim and his wife Stephanie live in Egg Harbor Township and met at Cedarville University, where they were both music majors. Tim is an accomplished trombone player, an instrument he first took up in the 5th grade.
Megan Whisman is starting her first full school year at ACS, having joined the faculty last spring just a few weeks before the coronavirus outbreak closed the campus and moved classroom learning online. Megan is excited to be sharing her love of reading and American and British literature with her students in the 8th to 12th grades.
Volunteers are an important part of school life at ACS and we are blessed each year to see the servant hearts of our parents, guardians, grandparents, and friends in the community who are willing to give of their time and talents to make the school day experience at ACS the best it can be. As this school year gets underway, we are in need of volunteers to help in a variety of areas, which are described below. Please consider how you can be involved in the ACS Family by serving as a volunteer.
Impact your children’s lives and ACS through prayer. Be a part of the ACS Parents in Prayer Group that will meet throughout the school year on Tuesday mornings from 8:45-10:00 a.m. in the Extended Care trailer. The first prayer meeting is Tuesday, September 29 and all parents and guardians are welcome to attend.
Parent-Teacher Conferences for parents with students in K to 12th grade will be on Wednesday, October 7 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. To schedule an in-person conference with a teacher, please use our on-line scheduling tool using the links listed below. Parents of any student on remote learning are welcome to sign up for a time and you will be sent a Zoom link for your meeting.
Starting this week, PTF Philly Pretzels are available for students to purchase on Wednesdays too! The Parent-Teacher Fellowship will be selling Philly Pretzel Factory Pretzels for $1 every Monday and Wednesday during lunch.
Parents and guardians are encouraged to participate in our upcoming Back-to-School Nights to be held online via Zoom rather than in-person this month, in keeping with our desire to protect the health and safety of our school families and staff. The Elementary Back-to-School Night will be on Thursday, September 17 for families with students in Kindergarten to the 5th grade, and the Upper School Back-to-School Night will be on Thursday, September 24 for families with students in grades 6-12.
Are you interested in getting involved as a volunteer at ACS? Come out for the first monthly meeting of the Parent-Teacher Fellowship on Thursday, September 17 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. to find out how and in what ways you can get involved. The PTF will continue to meet the third Thursday of each month throughout the school year.
The ACS 2020-2021 Spiritual Development Theme is “Stand Firm,” based on 1 Corinthians 16:13, which says — “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Chapel speakers during the first week of school focused on this theme and posters were displayed throughout the school building to encourage students to stand firm on God’s promises. Staff T-shirts worn on the first day of school also displayed the new theme.
Middle School Soccer tryouts for the boys’ and girls’ teams, which began today, will continue through next Tuesday, September 15. Try-outs are held after school from 3:15-5:00 p.m. Please come prepared with cleats and shin guards. The MS Boys’ coach is Brandon Stevens and the MS Girls’ coach is Casey Hopwood.
ACS has added a new high school elective called “Missions and Ministries” and faculty member Dave Genter, who will be teaching the course, is looking for help from ACS families, friends, and local churches to build a networking list of missionaries that the students can study and support.
Family Orientation will be held on Wednesday, September 2 to give all ACS families an opportunity to visit their children’s classrooms, meet their teachers, and become better acquainted with changes in student arrival and departure procedures and new health and safety protocols. A new video describing the many new health and safety measures will also be showing throughout the Orientation event, which will run from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Our 2019-2020 Annual Report is hot off the presses and was mailed in late August to ACS families, employees, and community supporters. The Annual Report uses narrative, with pictures and data, to provide a snapshot of school life for our students from preschool to the 12th grade and highlights the year’s academic and financial progress.
Thank you to everyone who donated blood at our American Cross Blood Drive on August 10 and helped make the event a success.